Sierra Spring Break Roundup

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

The third instalment in the Legend of Spyro trilogy doesn't appear to have a great deal in common with the first two. (This is a good thing, as they were rubbish.) In fact, according to senior producer Chris Wilson, it has more in common with some rather different titles.

"You could say we're a bit inspired by games like God of War and Devil May Cry," he says. "In a lot of kids' games, you don't often get some of those gameplay elements you're seeing in triple-A mature titles. We saw this as a unique opportunity to take some of the cool things we like about GOW and DMC, and bring that to a more mass-market game."

Dawn of the Dragon certainly doesn't look like its predecessors. Not too surprising, when you consider it's the first instalment in the series for PS3 and Xbox 360. But this really is Spyro as you've never seen him before; bigger, more detailed, and swooping around some seriously beautiful environments with amazing agility.

To begin the demo we're shown is a pretty pastoral scene complete with sunlit clouds, sparkling waterfalls and rolling green hills. The high level of detail and superb lighting are impressive. So is the way Spyro soars and dives through the air with, as Wilson explains, an unprecedented level of freedom.

"Spyro can now take off and fly at any point, not just jump and glide. For the most part you can fly everywhere you want to go, and if there's a gap in front of you, you should be able to fly to it. We're conscious you never feel like you're flying to a ledge and you're like, 'I'm right there, why can't I fly to it?'" But surely that will mean players end up flying everywhere rather than running and jumping. Does that mean Dawn of the Dragon isn't a platform game at all?

"We still wanted to stay true to the platforming roots of the series, while at the same time allowing people to feel the sensation of flight. So there is a ceiling to it. You can't fly as high as you want to, there is a limit," Wilson explains.

"We did that because we didn't want to turn it into a flight shooting game where you're always in the air shooting fireballs. In some instances, like if there's a cliff that's really high up, you might need to climb using ivy. We've incorporated a lot of platforming elements into that, so there might be boulders falling and you'll need to jump out of the way. It's very similar to God of War, the way they do their climbing zones."

Other new features include co-op play; you can swap between Spyro and dark dragon Cynder at the touch of a button. There's a two-player co-op mode too, but no online option. Once again Spyro can breathe fire, ice, electricity and earth, and you can choose to focus on upgrading a particular set of abilities. Now you can make use of Cynder's specialities too - poison, shadow, fear and wind.

But you probably won't care about that. What you might care about, if you're the kind of person who likes pretty platform games and wonders why everyone stopped making them in 2004, is how impressive Dawn of the Dragon is looking.

"This being Spyro's first time on next-gen has given us a chance to go back to the drawing board and think about how we can really take advantage of the power of the new consoles," reveals Wilson. "There was definitely a conscious decision to do something different."

The vision, he says, was always to make a game that was like an interactive Disney/Pixar movie - even before Sony started saying that about Ratchet & Clank PS3. "We think we're pretty close. Of course there's always room for achievement, but we think it really is going to feel like you're immersed in this big, epic chapter of a movie trilogy."

Spyro will never appeal to some people. But if you're a fan, or at least used to be before he went all dark and rubbish, you could be in for a treat.